The Wider Gola Landscape, Liberia

Liberia’s Upper Guinea forests are exceptionally diverse, with very high
rates of endemism. See the Wildlife page for more information. The Gola
National Forest, situated in north-west Liberia, is one of the largest
remaining intact areas of seasonal dense moist evergreen and semi-deciduous
forest in the whole region.

The upgrade of the Gola forest from National Forest to National
Park, scheduled to be completed in 2014, will significantly increase its level
of protection. Once the Gola National Park has been established, the area will
be linked to the Gola Rainforest National Park in Sierra Leone, creating a
unique transboundary Peace Park covering over 2,000 km², providing important additional
collaborative opportunities between the two neighbouring countries for
promoting conservation and sustainable management across the politically
divided ecosystem.

Crucially, however, the forest that
links the protected areas is of similar importance as it is also part of the
Upper Guinea Forest Biodiversity Hotspot, internationally recognised as a top
priority for conservation efforts. Few
studies have been completed on the fauna of the forest outside the protected
areas, but initial results show that there are several critically important
forest corridors between the protected areas that support similar fauna to
these areas. An exciting new EU-funded project, GolaMA, Connecting Forest and Peoplefocuses on one of these
critical corridors.

GolaMA covers ca. 40,000 ha of the Gola National Forest that
falls outside the planned National Park and in effect forms a corridor linking
two of the eight prospective protected areas in Liberia (the proposed Gola
Forest National Park and the Foya National Forest) and the Gola Rainforest
National Park in Sierra Leone. Golamais
targetting an estimated 2,000 people (ca.400 households).

The GolaMA project area is currently facing
serious threats, which, if not addressed, are likely to lead to isolation of
the protected areas, restricting their value to biodiversity. Liberia’s forests
contribute to the wellbeing of the national population by providing a wide
range of services, including bushmeat and fuel wood. These forest communities
are very remote, hence highly dependent on natural resources. The main sources
of subsitence is agriculture, with no or very restricted access to education,
health or to international aid.

A partnership between
the Government and resident forest communities to manage the GolaMA project area sustainably will not
only enhance the value of the protected areas to biodiversity by allowing this
forest to form ‘wildlife corridors’, but will also reduce the threats to the
protected areas that originate in these corridors (agricultural encroachment, mining,
bushmeat hunting) while increasing the wellbeing of forest communities. GolaMAwill consider adapting a
relatively new and innovative sustainable financing mechanism, alongside other
sustainable financing mechanisms. This will help to reduce the funding required
while also bridging the perceived divide between conservation and development.

GolaMA’s objectives
are to (i) establish Community Forest Management Agreements and financial
sustainability business plans, (ii) ensure forest communities are benefiting
from new, sustainable, alternative income generating activities under CFMAs
while contributing to forest protection, (iii) to reduce bushmeat hunting/trading
of protected species in the project area, (iv) establishing selfregulated sustainable
artisanal mining practices, and to (v) determine the potential of carbon
trading to provide sustained finance.